When did the OVC start to decline ?

[Tim James]

When did they go from being a multi bid league that won playoff games to a league that usually goes 0-1 ? Without doing any research, on the surface it seems they started to decline after they lost Middle Tennesse St.

[roTSU50]

When did they go from being a multi bid league that won playoff games to a league that usually goes 0-1 ? Without doing any research, on the surface it seems they started to decline after they lost Middle Tennesse St.

as well as WKU. It took some regionality(probably made a word up) xreadx away.
Some of the rivalries aren't their anymore. We had a year or two where their were only 6 or 7 football members before Samford and Jax St joined. APSU is now back in the fold, maybe some of the rivalries and recruiting wars can get the conference going in the right track.
MTSU and WKU moved up and I am sure they are taking some talent away because fo the FBS lure.

[Bam]

When did they go from being a multi bid league that won playoff games to a league that usually goes 0-1 ? Without doing any research, on the surface it seems they started to decline after they lost Middle Tennesse St.

When the academic standards were tightened.

[UAalum72]

as well as WKU. It took some regionality(probably made a word up) xreadx away.
Some of the rivalries aren't their anymore. We had a year or two where their were only 6 or 7 football members before Samford and Jax St joined. APSU is now back in the fold, maybe some of the rivalries and recruiting wars can get the conference going in the right track.
MTSU and WKU moved up and I am sure they are taking some talent away because fo the FBS lure.
Does WKU count? They were only in the league for two years the second time around, and their playoff win was vs. the MEAC. Murray St. has the only other conference playoff win (1996) since the early 90s. MTSU didn't make the playoffs in their last four years in the OVC.

Any 'decline' goes back to 1995 or earlier.

[Bam]

When EKU began to decline so did the OVC. Without EKU the OVC is null & void. Merry X-Mas.

[Tim James]

I don't count WKU either. The Big Sky and Soutland seemed to "weather the storm" so to speak a lot better than the OVC did after they each lost a few members.

[roTSU50]

The only reason I included because they seem to begin to become the class of OVC football.

I like 95-99 because we were winning. Then our coached runied everything.

I just think our configuration of team is different. We went from a mostly TN, KY conference to adding in Alabama, Illinois, and Mo.



EKU ba hum bug

[FCS_pwns_FBS]

When Tennessee State got the #1 seed in 1999 and got beat by a NCA&T team that was then beat 41-3 by Youngstown State. IMO that seemed to be beginning of a new era in the OVC in the playoffs.